


A Little Stretch

by Aithilin



Series: MerMay 2020 [4]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Everybody Lives, M/M, Mer!Noctis, MerMay 2020, Older Noctis Lucis Caelum, peaceful AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:28:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24393544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aithilin/pseuds/Aithilin
Summary: As a Glaive regularly assigned to the inner sanctum of the Lucian royal family, Nyx knows all the secrets of the King.
Relationships: Noctis Lucis Caelum/Nyx Ulric
Series: MerMay 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1730110
Comments: 11
Kudos: 61





	A Little Stretch

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted over at Tumblr as part of my MerMay challenge; Merfolk Fluffabet - G for glass.

Nyx had learnt to just accept that there were secrets in Lucis. That his duties started and ended with his orders on any given day, and that his own time was better spent not questioning where they came from. He had learnt early in his career of standing guard, with the King’s magic burning through his veins, that the only words of gossip he should be worry about were the ones carried between dignitaries and their assistants between meetings. It was easier to ignore the rumours that circulated through the quiet halls of the hallowed Citadel— flowing from visitors who had simply read their history books wrong, or staff who wanted to cause trouble— than it was to question them. 

They weren’t his secrets. He didn’t want the responsibility of keeping them. 

He had enough of his own. 

“Where are you heading?” 

Libertus was off his shift early, the mid-morning watch for the Citadel a slog in the warm summer weather. Nyx was later in the day, when the visitors had cleared and the heat started to seep from the dark stone of the plaza. He offered a shrug to his friend, as Libertus shut his locker and gave the lock one last, final tug to reaffirm his uniform was safe. 

Nyx smiled at the gesture; Libertus had been doubting his locks since high school. When Nyx once picked his way to fifty gil he had yet to pay back. 

“Royal apartments,” Nyx offered in answer, dropping his tone to feign boredom with the extended assignment. He had been walking the same halls and standing at the same doors for months now, according to his friends; “again.”

“Man, what did you do to the Captain to piss him off so much?” Libertus clasped his should on the way past, already pulling on his civilian jacket to fend off the chill winds that funnelled through the Citadel approach. “This is month six of this shit shift.”

Nyx gave his friend a bright smile and dismissive wave; “I’m not helping you win that bet.”

“I’ll have a drink for you, Nyx.”

“You better.”

The royal apartments were easy enough to get to when assigned. Nyx made his way by the staff elevator— closing his eyes against the endless reflection of the mirrored walls once he had keyed in his access— and then again by the main elevator once he had reached as far as he could go one way. He had once thought that the security measures were extreme, the checks and Crownsguard who greeted him in the hallway along the way had their own specific orders and a preference for ignoring any attempt at conversation. The second access code required after the staff elevator entered under those stern, severe expressions, Nyx could only smile in response to them out of habit as he keyed in his entry. 

The change from public halls to staff to residential had always been a shock to Nyx. The welcoming and informative lower rooms— the stark and imposing conference rooms, and the grand chambers meant to show off the power of the King and Lucis— was traded for the almost sterile chaos of the staff areas. The staff routes were left spotless and up decorated, a shining grey with little decoration or decorum as an army of people moved about their daily tasks; ID cards and security access clearly pinned to their uniforms for all to see. 

And the royal apartments were a whole different world by comparison. 

The crisp sound of his boots on polished floor was immediately muffled by well cared for carpet once he stepped through the door, the cold hallways immediately opened to the warm and homey halls leading to the reception areas for the nobility to greet personal visitors. The gilded walls gave way to the high arched windows, the glow of the crystal at war with the sun as the first corridors were open to both views before the hallway narrowed and the rooms used by the royal family took their place. 

More familial portraits adorned the halls; King Regis before he stepped down seated in a less formal portrait by the royal study, his young son on his knee. The arches of Duscae were portrayed in modern oils next to some century old depiction of Angelgard, both faded from years facing the light. And the further he went down the hallway, past doors for studies and libraries that hadn’t seen use in years, Nyx noted the absence of his favourite painting. 

There was a gaping space between the family portraits and familiar landscapes. Nyx paused at the emptiness and wondered at it for a moment; the paintings were regularly taken down, restored, placed in storage, or moved to other rooms to change the air. He knew the King could have very well requested any of those. 

The young King had insisted on plenty of changes when he moved back into the comforts of the Citadel. 

“You took your time,” Noctis greeted once Nyx had entered the room. The King’s ‘inner sanctum’ was more than just a study or a bedroom in Lucis. The family hub had its own pool which took up the bulk of the already spacious room, salt water sloshed against the glass as Noctis stretched; his royal attire discarded in a heap just inside the doorway, the afternoon light streaming in from skylights overhead, letting Nyx see the King in his full glory. 

“I took the scenic route.”

“There’s a scenic route?”

There was no real secret that the royals of Lucis were magical— emerged from the seas of Eos after the ruin of Solheim, empowered by the Tidemother herself to bring a new kingdom to light with the Crystal’s power— but it was still an impressive change. As a human, King Noctis was quiet, observant, and calculating according to some (Nyx knew he just didn’t like the attention). As his natural self— long tail stretching in the water like a piece of shimmering starry night made living— rendered Nyx speechless.

Almost. 

“Not as scenic as you, Majesty.”

“That didn’t even make sense,” Noctis said before he dipped fully below the surface. The longer he was submerged, the more otherworldly he could look; hair moving away from the delicate gills that seemed to seal themselves against the air during the day, frills and fins translucent in the light that made its way through the water, ghostly in their freedom from the illusion they were so often wrapped in. 

Regis had retired to Caem, and Noctis had left his comfortable apartment on the edges of Insomnia, where the city dipped and disappeared to the shelf below the waves carved by Leviathan millennium ago. Where to feel the freedom of his tail and true form, he just had to take a walk to the shore. Now, the pool was the best he could manage until the work let him disappear for longer than a few hours at a time. 

Nyx was happy to watch, the barrier of the glass containing Noctis’ childish stretches and turns, somersaults in the water as he inspected the delicate fins for any sign of fatigue or damage due to the extended illusion that let him govern his people while looking like one of them. 

“We should go out to the shore,” Nyx said without thinking. He had approached the pool without thinking; a habit formed by years of getting close to the King. Of thinking of him as just Noctis. “Let you stretch a bit.”

Noctis surfaced, his hand a mirror to Nyx’s on the glass as he braced himself; “Which shore?”

“Any shore. Galahd maybe. You haven’t been there in years.”

The small smile reminded Nyx of when the King was the Crown Prince, when the long term assignments to guard the royal apartments seemed like a sentence to a slow death by boredom. When Noctis first invited him in for a swim. 

“Who would run the kingdom?”

“Ignis has it in hand, I’m told. And your Shield does a lot of the legwork in the Council.”

“Are you suggesting I go on vacation without my Shield?”

“You’ll have me, Majesty.”

Noctis’ sly smile turned into a grin, and the King leaned over to pull him closer. Nyx braced himself with both hands on the glass as they kissed, the smooth floor slick with water that had escaped in Noctis’ movements and earlier transformation. The squeak of his boots dragging over the wet floor echoed in the room and they both struggled not to laugh. 

Have sold guard for the King for so long, Nyx knew all of his secrets. He was happy to be one of them.


End file.
